Last year, the Friday before Thanksgiving to be exact I returned home to my wife after an evening out at dinner and a volleyball game with my brother and some Tech athletes. Tenly was already in bed, but she was waiting up for me. Her waiting up for me is not unusual(she cant sleep unless I am in the bed with her) what accompanied her was. There next to her on the bed was a present wrapped for me. I wondered what this could be. Had she though of me out shopping? Perhaps a new sweater for sweater season. No, no the contents I would come to find within that package would be much more valuable than a trusty sweater. I quickly opened the gift, reached in and pulled out a tiny red pajama outfit that red “Baby’s First Christmas”, along with a pregnancy test that was colored blue. I immediately asked her if blue meant boy? Then I asked, “are you serious?” She said yes. You never know how you might act/react in a large scale life event like the news of mother with child. I was certainly not prepared for that news when I arrived home that evening. Tenly being pregnant would have been far from my mind. In that moment, the moment of monumental, life changing news I felt two things like never before, joy and peace. My heart was warmed in a way that only the eager expectation of being a father could bring. In the midst of all the excitement deep within my now wildly beating heart was the peace of God. I was ready to be a father. This time of year we celebrate a birth of a far greater baby than mine and Tenly’s, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Joy and Peace He brings are far greater than what I experienced at the news of Perry. His Joy means we have a savior whose love is more satisfying than the sins we we once were consumed by. His peace grants us peace with God through himself and life sacrifice, and rules our hearts though the economy, friends, and our own bodies fail us. Jesus is the all satisfying joy and ever present peace all humanity has longed for. This year is Perry Rose’s first Christmas, and on Christmas night we will dress her in the pajamas I opened from Tenly last year. Then we will pray, and thank God for our gift and daughter. And even more we will thank God for the gift of His Son who born a baby would grow to be a man who would change the course of history by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. A baby’s first Christmas is special, but it would be nothing without Christ.
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